EDreams Odigeo IPO Announced, Raising Money For More Acquisitions

Skift Take

Among the only online travel IPOs to come on the market in 2014, EDreams Odigeo — which has a portfolio spanning Europe, Asia, and Latin America — will be closely watched for where travel bookings are going in relatively mature markets like Europe versus emerging markets like Latin America and Asia.

EDreams Odigeo, a Spanish online travel agency, announced an initial public offering in Madrid, helping end a listings drought of almost three years in the country.

EDreams Odigeo said it would sell new shares to investors and use the proceeds to redeem some senior 2019 notes issued by subsidiary Geo Travel Finance S.C.A. Odigeo is owned by Permira Advisers LLP and Ardian, the private-equity firm formerly known as AXA Private Equity which will also sell shares in the sale.

The IPO could raise about 350 million euros ($481 million) and Barcelona-based eDreams Odigeo may be valued at about 1.5 billion euros, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News this week. Spanish companies including Applus+, which inspects everything from cars to electronics, and cable operator Grupo Corporativo ONO SA are planning IPOs as investors return to the Iberian market on the promise of an economic recovery.

In the nine months ended December, eDreams Odigeo said it had a revenue margin of 311.9 million euros and 88.8 million euros in recurring earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared with a revenue margin of 268.1 million euros and 80.3 million euros of recurring Ebitda a year earlier.

The company’s “strong cash flow generation” and expected deleveraging after the IPO will give it more flexibility to look at attractive targets for acquisition, according to the statement. EDreams Odigeo had more than 14 million customers last March.

Editors: Robert Valpuesta, Ben Livesey. To contact the reporters on this story: Ruth David in London at rdavid9@bloomberg.net; Manuel Baigorri in Madrid at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jacqueline Simmons at jackiem@bloomberg.net.